New York, NY, May 31, 2023 -- Students that live on campus are more likely to engage in academic activities relative to their off-campus peers regardless of important factors like race, parental education, and finances. That’s according to the latest research from The Association of College and University Housing Officers - International.  While student success is more likely to occur because of residence life, there are steps that some colleges take to better support students’ sense of belonging and enrich their academic experience. To recognize the impact that data-driven programs have in supporting on-campus living, Skyfactor Benchworks, a Macmillan Learning company, has named the 2023 Assessment and Impact Awards for Housing and Residence Life.  “By harnessing the power of data, colleges gain invaluable insights into students' needs, preferences, and challenges, which helps to create tailored experiences that truly make a difference for students -- especially those in their first year of college. For the fifth year, we’re proud to recognize colleges that are using surveys and data to create a transformative experience for students that helps them feel supported and engaged in campus life,” said Steven Ray, Vice President of Enterprise Solutions for Macmillan Learning.  The return of students to campus following the pandemic has led many of this year’s nominees to redesign their programming and update their facilities to build even stronger student communities. Proximity to other students can help create connections between students as well as between students and staff that help to build the foundation for future interactions, create more inclusive experiences and enhance learning outcomes. Research from Skyfactor announced in May 2023 found that higher levels of program participation in residence life were associated with greater perceived gains in six areas of skill needed in a community setting, particularly skills related to interacting with diverse others as well as respecting and trusting others and feeling accepted by them. The results come from a national dataset constructed from the 2021-2022 administration of Skyfactor’s ACUHO-I/Benchworks Resident Assessment of over 150,000 college students from nearly 200 colleges and universities in the United States. The 2023 Assessment & Impact Awards in Housing and Residence Life winners are: Lafayette College was recognized for significant improvement in survey scores related to student staff and creating a sense of community. Using student feedback, Lafayette’s Resident Life department has implemented new programs to increase student connections and foster a student-forward housing experience through personal interactions. University of Akron was recognized for significant improvement in survey scores related to diverse interactions. Using student feedback, the University Housing department has helped ensure that inclusion is an everyday experience. To do this they bolstered resident assistance (RA) training and created diverse activities that matter to its students.  The University of Texas at Dallas was recognized for high performance on survey scores related to satisfaction with facilities. With its goal to better serve student needs, UTD’s Housing department increased its reactivity to students’ needs, upgraded communal spaces, and expedited repairs to reduce inconvenience to residents. The 2023 winners were selected this spring through the company’s data-driven analysis of nominees and the 17 finalists. Macmillan Learning’s Analytics & Research Team analyzed multiple years of data from the ACUHO-I/Benchworks Resident Assessment to identify programs with both consistently high scores and those that have seen significant improvements in their survey scores. The team then interviewed staff from these campuses to learn about the efforts and initiatives in place at each program. Each finalist was given a blind review by an external team of experts to determine final scores. The Assessment and Impact Awards for Residence Life recognizes colleges that demonstrate intentionality in using insights from data to improve their residence life programs. Skyfactor Benchworks recognized three housing programs in 2022, ten housing programs during the pandemic (seven in 2021, three in 2020) as well as four housing programs in 2019.  Skyfactor also has an Assessment and Impact Award for nursing education programs; winners will be announced this summer. The self-nominations for next year’s housing and residence life awards will launch in early 2024. About Skyfactor Benchworks Benchworks provides research-based program assessments and benchmarking for a variety of Student Affairs programs, as well as Business Education, Engineering, Nursing, Teacher Education. With robust analytics Benchworks empowers programs to identify areas of improvement for maximum impact on program success. Benchworks assessments are rooted in research and mapped to accreditation and professional standards. About Macmillan Learning Macmillan Learning is a privately-held, family-owned company that inspires what’s possible for every learner. We envision a world in which every learner succeeds. Through our content, tools and services, we aim to make that a reality. To learn more, please visit macmillanlearning.com or join our Macmillan Community.  ... View more

Company seeks 20 instructors teaching Introduction to Psychology and 20 teaching Introduction to Biology from minority serving institutions  New York, March 27, 2022 -- Macmillan Learning, a privately-held, family-owned education publishing and service company, is seeking instructors teaching Introduction to Psychology or Introduction to Biology this fall to participate in research on closing equity gaps through evidence-based teaching practices. The study is part of Macmillan Learning’s ongoing research about how digital learning platforms and courseware like Achieve can help to close equity gaps in course completion for historically and presently underserved students, and students experiencing poverty. It is being conducted in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The research will focus on four specific evidence-based teaching practices: active learning, outcomes-driven instruction, formative assessment with feedback and metacognition; and, importantly, how resources and tools can be incorporated into courseware, like the company’s digital learning platform Achieve, to support underserved students and promote student success. The research builds upon the company’s prior study in fall 2022 on evidence-based teaching practices, which included more than 1,000 student participants from more than a dozen institutions.  “Underrepresented students often face unique challenges in the classroom, including a lack of access to resources and support, as well as systemic barriers that may impede their success. We want to understand how incorporating evidence-based teaching practices within courseware can help create a more equitable and effective learning environment. While the problem we’re looking to solve is bigger than just courseware, we believe courseware has the potential to make a difference and are eager to partner with institutions to explore the possibility," said Marcy Baughman, Executive Director, Learning Science & Insights. Research for Introduction to Psychology will be done using the best-selling Achieve for Psychology in Everyday Life, 6e, written by David G. Myers and Nathan C. DeWall. Research for the Introduction to Biology courses will be done using Biology for a Changing World, 4e. Students participating in the research will receive their course materials at no cost to them, and participation in the research study is voluntary.   Results from the fall 2022 study are expected later this spring. Once the full set of results are available, Macmillan Learning will make its findings publicly available and create an implementation guide with examples of evidence-based practices that can be used in courseware like Achieve. In concurrence, the company is also researching the impact of students’ sense of belonging and metacognition. That study seeks to understand the impact of using resources embedded within a digital courseware platform to improve students’ sense of belonging and metacognition skills; it will also examine whether improved sense of belonging and metacognition skills are related to other student outcomes such as course retention, content knowledge and exam scores. The first study took place Spring 2023 and the next will take place in Fall 2023. Benefits of Participating: In addition to helping build the body of research about evidence-based teaching practices, both instructors and the students taking their course will benefit from the study. Instructors will receive a stipend, professional development and recognition as participants of the study. Students who opt in to the study will receive free access to online courseware within Achieve as well as gift cards for providing feedback about their experience.  Instructors from 2- or 4-year institutions teaching Introduction to Biology or Introduction to Psychology serving predominantly Black, Latino, Indigenous and/or lower-income students can register their interest in participating in the study here.  Applications are open through April 15, 2023. About Achieve Achieve is Macmillan Learning’s digital learning platform, which was developed with the goal of supporting students of all levels of motivation and preparedness and to engage them in and out of class to improve their outcomes. Because it was based in learning science, Achieve was the first product exclusively designed for higher education to earn the “Research-Based Design” product certification by Digital Promise. The product certification helps ensure instructors and institutions that the products they select were designed using research-based learning science principles and developed using best practices before using them with their students. Previous efficacy research on Achieve found that it can help bridge the performance gap often seen among students entering college. That is, the more that less academically prepared students use Achieve, the closer they can come to meeting the performance of their more academically prepared peers.  Studies conducted over four recent semesters (Fall 2019 to Spring 2021) with 4,400 students in introductory courses from six different disciplines demonstrate that past academic performance and college readiness have the greatest impact on students’ exam scores -- more than any other student characteristics. Achieve was able to support student success no matter a student’s past academic performance, college readiness, student characteristics, and course exam difficulty. The more students use Achieve, the better they do in their courses. For example, students with higher grades on their Achieve assignments could expect to perform 9 points higher on their courses exams. Also, students that used Achieve less than what was typically seen with their classmates, performed 4% to 8% lower on their exams. About Macmillan Learning Macmillan Learning is a privately-held, family-owned company that inspires what’s possible for every learner. We envision a world in which every learner succeeds. Through our content, tools and services, we aim to make that a reality. To learn more, please visit macmillanlearning.com or join our Macmillan Community.  ... View more